Pillar[n]arene-based porous polymers for rapid pollutant removal from water

Pillar[n]arene (PA[n], n = 5 or 6) based porous polymers (P-PAP[n]s) were prepared by crosslinking PA[n]s and used as adsorbents to remove pollutants from water via host–guest interactions. These new materials are adsorbents for a wide range of contaminants with fast removal kinetics. The adsorption is especially efficient for herbicide paraquat with very fast uptake kinetics (k2 = 33.3 g mg−1 min−1, at least 5 times faster than that of any existing adsorbent for paraquat) and a high removal capacity (209 mg g−1).